When Dayton landed like a bomb on the line opposite Ohio State in the second round of the NCAA bracket, the reaction was the same as if the Buckeyes had drawn Cincinnati, Xavier or any other in-state school.

Uh-oh.

Ohio State’s determination to avoid games with in-state schools has been shared by most coaches over the years, to the irritation of other Ohio coaches and the impatience of entertainment-thirsty Buckeyes fans. So whenever the NCAA tournament committee — or even NIT matchmakers — deals the Buckeyes a game like this one, there’s a tendency to wonder if committee members didn’t bring the two together with a bit of a snicker.

What’s funny about this is that Ohio State coach Thad Matta said he was glad when he saw Dayton’s name pop up there, not because he wanted to play the Flyers, but because some analysts had Dayton on the NCAA bubble and Archie Miller, one of Matta’s former assistants, is the coach there.

When you have a lot of crosspollination, the emotions can become as tangled as a ball of dried spaghetti.

“I wanted Arch to get in the NCAA tournament,” Matta said. “And (my second reaction) was kind of like, ‘Aww, here we go.’ But I’m so happy for him in terms of getting in. And I’ll be honest: I won’t even see him down there. During the game, that’s kind of irrelevant to me.

“It seems like the longer you do this, the more workings there are like this.”

It’s not as if this hasn’t happened before. In 2008, the Buckeyes were matched against the Flyers in the third round of the NIT and OSU won 74-63 at a packed Value City Arena. The two schools played in ’87 and ’88 when Gary Williams coached the Buckeyes, with each winning on the other’s home court.

There is no denying that games against in-state opponents can be trap games for the big, snooty schools that normally avoid them. Back in the days before the Kentucky legislature ordered Kentucky and Louisville to play in the regular season, one of these out-of-the-blue (sorry) tournament deals would raise the same kind of response.

But it’s also true that, in the NCAA tournament, those opportunities can be easily overblown. Two years ago, Ohio State hammered Cincinnati 81-66 in an East Regional game, and most of the talk wasn’t on the in-state rivalry but on getting to the Final Four.

In NCAA play, the loser is finished for the season. In sudden-death situations, the extracurricular stuff, such as who wouldn’t play whom where last season, tends to get lost.

Matta had another reason for thinking Dayton is a good draw. The Buckeyes have talent and experience, but they also have had trouble keeping their eye on the ball, which has cost them several games this season. In the Big Ten tournament opener, the Buckeyes almost bowed out against 12th-seeded Purdue, and it fell 18 points behind Nebraska in the second round before rallying.

Because of that, Dayton, which counts Ohio State transfer Jordan Sibert among its starters, might be just what this slow-to-the start Buckeyes team needs in the first round.

“I think, for this team, it’s a great thing,” Matta said. “Talking in terms of us, I like that because there won’t need to be a wakeup call. There won’t need to be a ‘Who is this? Who are they? What conference are they in? I haven’t heard of that guy,’ or anything like that, so I like that from that perspective.”

The reaction of the players was about the same as it was when they met Cincinnati in 2012. They’re excited to play anybody.

“We’re both in the same boat: You lose, you go home,” senior Lenzelle Smith Jr. said. “So I think we’ll both be playing jacked up for the same purpose.”

The loser will have plenty of time to worry about all that other stuff as soon as Friday.